1. Field
The invention disclosed and claimed herein pertains to a method and apparatus for using a systems management tool, entity, or product of some type to manage a computer appliance. More particularly, the invention pertains to a method and apparatus of the above type, wherein the appliance comprises an integrated solution appliance.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a large data center, a systems management tool, such as Systems Director of the IBM Corporation, is commonly used to manage multiple solutions. As is known by those of skill in the art, a systems management tool, product, or other entity is an administrator of distributed computer systems and can extend across an entire enterprise. As used herein, the term “solution” means or refers to a computer system wherein a number of computer hardware, software, and middleware components are configured to interact with one another in order to perform a specified function or task, or to achieve a specified objective.
A systems management tool, product, or entity may also be used to manage or control a solution that resides in or is associated with a computer appliance. As is known by those of skill in the art, an appliance is a hardware device with integrated software and/or firmware, which is designed to provide a specific computing resource. As used herein, the term “integrated solution appliance” means an appliance that can be used to implement multiple solutions, wherein different solutions need to share the same hardware and software components of the appliance. Usefully, an integrated solution appliance includes middleware for running and integrating the software components of solutions that are respectively associated with the appliance.
An integrated solution appliance can contain multiple servers, switches, and storage elements. Also, each solution can have its own management mechanism and console. As a result, if a presently available systems management tool is used to manage an integrated solution appliance as a single abstracted resource, efficiency of the management effort may be quite limited. This is because the existing solution, which has specific targeted management consoles for individual appliance solutions, is not scalable to the different solutions of the appliance. Also, such arrangement requires training system administrators on multiple management methodologies and consoles. However, by not making use of a systems management capability, the total cost of ownership, as well as the cost for additional services, can be significantly increased.